Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, Prof Marshall Sheldon is thrilled with the performance of the CPUT World Skills teams that attended the WorldSkills South Africa National Competition held in Durban.
The five CPUT teams clinched a total of six medals, three gold and as many silver medals. CPUT also received tools for CNC milling to the value of R70 000 as part of upskilling the competitors and experts from the Department of Higher Education and Training.
The tools are now kept at CPUT CNC workshop for training of community. After the national competition, numerous sponsors and SETAs showed interest to work and invest at CPUT as a hub and a driver of higher order skills as there are not many universities part at this stage. This puts CPUT in a better opportunity to train the trainers for the WorldSkills Competition (WSC). CPUT also stands a chance to explore possibilities of incorporating Work Integrated Learning (WIL) into the WSC program. The competition stirred a good atmosphere of skills excellence among students and staff who attended it. Only the Mechanical and Mechatronics department participated in this year’s WSC, but the invitation is expected to be extended to other departments such as Information Technology, Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Food Technology.
Sheldon said the CPUT teams’ performance made her enormously proud of the student and staff’s achievements.
The competition was planned to be held in China but due the COVID situation in that country it was changed to Europe, and various countries in Europe will host the competition for various skills.
The mobile robotic team won a gold medal and they will be going to France in October 2022. The female student who participated in the CNC skill team won a gold medal and she will be going to Germany in October 2022.
“The Faculty is very proud of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics staff and students for putting CPUT on the map in terms of the 4IR World Skills and wish them all of the best with the competition abroad.”
Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching and Learning, Prof Rishidaw Balkaran also congratulated the team. “Well done! To the colleagues and students at the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics, thank you for the excellent work and waving the CPUT flag high,” Balkaran enthused.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Technology, Innovation and Partnerships, Dr David Phaho said: “This is great news and congratulations to the faculty and the involved colleagues.”
Written by Aphiwe Boyce
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